Naomi
Living Life Through Famines
How God turned one woman's famine into a bountiful harvest
Vivian Ward
The Woman Who Tasted the Cup of Bitterness
Naomi was challenged with a great deal of grief. There was a famine in the land. She had lost her husband and sons. She returns to her homeland. Her grief even made her unrecognizable to her people! Years of grief and dealing wrongly with it can leave traces on your face. Naomi did not give up on God but she did become bitter towards God. She thought the hand of the Lord was against her, she blamed God for the crisis in her life.
Abandoned By God
Naomi didn’t want to be call Naomi anymore. Naomi means “pleasant” and her life wasn’t pleasant any more. She wanted to be called Mara which means “bitter” because she thought the Lord had dealt bitterly toward her.”
Her justification was that she went out full and she came home empty and that God had testified against her in this way and He had afflicted her, which made her bitter. Naomi’s problem wasn’t her grief; it was her bitterness. She had to change her attitude and her perspective of the situation in order to deal with her grief. Naomi then begins to press through her pain, and begins to allow God to use her.
Have you ever felt like things in your world were crumbling around you? Have you ever known a grief so deep that you felt there was no hope for restoration?
Regardless of how Naomi may have felt, God had not abandoned her. God had a plan to restore her and bring her hope And, He has a plan to do the same thing for us. God had a plan to restore Naomi at the time she could not see it. All she could see was her own pain. Sometimes when we are in our darkest hour, all we can see is the dark. We cannot see God at work, shining His light into our darkness.
Her Change of Circumstances
Naomi lived a life full of ups and downs, similar to many of us today. Naomi pressed through her pain, and allowed God to use her. God gave her hope through Ruth. In her desire to serve God and her family, she led a young lady to marry and successfully begin the lineage of King David. The beginning of that hope was revealed in Ruth, and it was completed in a man named Boaz. The family she thought she had seen perish has been restored.
God did not leave Naomi empty as she had thought. God used her to bless the world. God had a plan, as He always does. His plan was to give Naomi "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isaiah 61:3).
I leave you with this, what if God reserved moments in your life to impact your tomorrows? What if we were called to be the kind of friend that puts other’s needs before our own? What if one decision we made effected future generations? What if God was writing your story today – in this very moment? I pray that as we all reflect on this incredible story, we might recognize that in our brokenness, God is creating a beautiful story that can change not only our lives, but others… forever.
Blessings to All!
Vivian Ward
Bible Reference: Ruth 1; 4:13-17
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NLT)
© 2016 by Vivian Ward. All Rights Reserved.
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